This invention relates generally to postage for mailpieces, and more particularly to systems and methods for authenticating the payment of postage for mailpieces.
Postal authorities typically require an amount of postage be paid for the processing of each mailpiece. Typically, and most often for individual personal use, the indication to the postal authority that the proper amount of postage has been paid is evidenced by the placement of a postage stamp on the actual mailpiece sent through the postal system. These postage stamps are sold in various denominations, and are typically applied to the mailpiece through an adhesive backing on the postage stamp. In this form, the postal authority requires a minimum amount of postage for a first class letter up to a certain weight, letters above which must include additional postage for proper processing.
To overcome these problems existing with the usage of conventional postage stamps, the usage of postage meters has been authorized by the postal authorities. While not in widespread usage among individual consumers, many businesses have acquired such postage meters to apply postage to the mailpieces sent therefrom. These postage meters print a postage indicia on the mailpieces themselves, or on adhesive labels which may be applied to the mailpieces to indicate to the postal authority that the proper amount of postage is affixed thereto. A benefit of the postage meters is that an exact amount of postage due for the processing of individual mailpieces of a particular weight may be dispensed by the postage meter, thus reducing the inclusion of excess postage on the individual mailpieces. This may result in a cost savings to mailers over the usage of traditional postage stamps.
One problem with the usage of existing postage meters concerns the ability to counterfeit the postage impression. While certain information is contained in the postage indicia printed by the postage meter, such information can not necessarily ensure that counterfeiting of these indicia is not taking place. In an effort to curtail such counterfeiting, some postage meters utilize specially formulated inks when printing the indicia to inhibit the ability of postage counterfeiters from merely copying the printed indicia.
In an attempt to reduce such electronic counterfeiting, various systems have been proposed. One such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,718, by Sansone, et al. for a Postage And Mailing Information Applying System. The system described by this patent generates and applies postage information on an envelope or mailing label in the form of a postage indicia. This postage indicia includes a unique encrypted line relating the recipient""s address and the postage information. This patent describes that including such encrypted recipient address information in the postage indicia, the indicia becomes unique for that particular mailpiece based upon the specific relationship between the encrypted message and the human readable recipient address on the mailpiece itself. In this way, the patent describes that the printed indicia containing this encrypted recipient address information may not be counterfeited and used for mailpieces to be delivered to any other address than that for which it was originally generated. A drawback to this approach is that recipient address information must be included in the postage indicia, thus making indicia larger than it might otherwise be. Smaller indicia are seen as superior in that they require less ink to print and occupy less space on the front of the envelope.
Therefore, there exists a need for a system that effectively prohibits counterfeiting while providing a smaller indicia on the mailpiece. Such a system is presented by the instant invention.
It is therefore an object of the instant invention to provide a new and improved system and method for authenticating mailpieces. More particularly, it is an object of the instant invention to provide a new and improved method and system for authenticating mailpieces whereby the postal indicia size is reduced from that of prior methods to allow increased availability of the envelope for other purposes on the mailpiece. Further, it is an object of the instant invention to allow consumers to obtain the postal indicia with a minimum of difficulty taking advantage of modern computer technology. It is a further object of the instant invention to allow the utilization of the system and method of the instant invention without the necessity of dedicated hardware which must be obtained by a consumer. However, it is also an object of the instant invention to allow utilization of the system and method of the instant invention on dedicated hardware specifically manufactured for this purpose, should such be desired. It is an additional object of the instant invention to reduce the cost to the consumer of utilizing the method and system of the instant invention. Additionally, it is an object of the instant invention to maintain or improve the level of assurance that the postal indicia has not been counterfeited.
In view of these objects, it is a feature of the instant invention to provide a postage indicia which is small in size, reducing the required amount of real estate on the mailpiece for its placement, thereby allowing additional real estate for advertising verbiage and graphics, as well as personal messages, graphics, etc. In view of these objects and features, it is an aspect of the instant invention that a log of all indicia created by a user be created. This log is then transmitted to the postal authority either on a daily basis or in real time. It is a further aspect of the instant invention that the postal authority maintains a database of all postage indicia logs which it utilizes to verify proper postage indicia and to identify counterfeit indicia. It is a further aspect of the instant invention that the postage indicia printed by a user contain a serial or transaction number. It is an additional aspect of the instant invention that the log generated from the postage indicia contain both the serial or transaction number of the postage indicia as well as the recipient address information of the mailpiece onto which that postage indicia is affixed. In an alternate aspect of the instant invention, the postage indicia included on the mailpiece is printed in plain text, and the log information is digitally signed prior to transmission to the postal authority. The plain text may be encoded in machine readable form.
A further aspect of the instant invention is that the postal authority index the master database created from the log entries from all of the postage consumers by serial or transaction number of the postage indicia. Further, it is an aspect of the instant invention that as mailpieces are sorted through the postage system, the postage indicia is scanned to identify proper postage and the serial or transaction number. This information is then used to identify the database entry for that postage indicia so that the expected recipient address information may be extracted from the master database. Once this expected recipient address information has been extracted from the database based upon the indicia serial or transaction number, it is compared to the actual recipient address information contained on the mailpiece. If there is a discrepancy between the expected and the actual recipient address information, the mailpiece will be identified as containing counterfeit indicia.
Alternatively, it is an aspect of the instant invention that a log not be maintained by the postal consumers. Instead, the postal authority will scan each mailpiece as it is processed through the postal system to identify the indicia transaction or serial number. This information will be stored in a master database where it will be utilized by the postal authority to identify counterfeit postage indicia. As with the prior embodiment, the master database will be indexed by transaction or serial number. As each subsequent mailpiece is processed by the postal authority, its indicia serial or transaction number will be compared to the master database to determine if an identical serial or transaction number already exists therein. If a match is found in the master database, the mailpiece will be identified as containing counterfeit indicia.